Safety appliance for street-cars



F. D. MACDONALD. SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR STREET CARS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23, I919- Patented July 19, 1921.

L n1 IIIILIT A TTORNEY.

UNITED STATES FRANK D. MACDONALD, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR STREET-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 19, 1921.

Application filed October 23. 1919. Serial No. 332,767.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, FRANK D. MACDONALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Appliances for Street-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in safety appliances for street cars and other passenger carrying vehicles, and has for its object to provide novel, simple and effective means for protecting passengers while entering and leaving the cars, from being run down by automobiles and other vehicles which attempt to pass the cars while the latter are Standing still. A further object is to ,provide a novel and simple guard which is pivotally mounted at the rear-end of the street car, preferably in a vertical position when raised, and which is under the control of the conductor, and is adapted to be swung downwardly and outwardly at right angles to the car in the path of the other vehicles, simultaneously with the opening of the rear vestibule doors, for warning and stopping vehicles which are moving in the same direction as the street cars, thereby permitting the passengers to board or alight from the latter in safety. And a further ob'ect is to provide novel and simple means or auto matically lowering and raising the guard by the opening and closing of the doors of the car.

I attain these ob'ects by the means set forth in the details description which follows, and as illustrated by the accompanyin r drawing, in which- *igure 1 is a broken horizontal section of the rear vestibule of a street car, to which my improvement is applied; the full lines showing the doors closed and the guard in the raised position.

Fig. 2 is a rear-end elevation of the car; the full lines showing the guard standing upright in raised position, and the dotted lines showing the doors open and the guard in the extended or operative position.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of the gear mechanism by which the guard is lowered and raised viewed in the direction of the arrows 3-3 of Fig. 1.

In the drawing, 2 represents the rear-end vestibule of a closed street car, the right hand side of which is equipped with the usual folding doors 3 and 3. These. doors are mounted on pintles at, and are adapted to be swung outwardly, as shown by the dotted lines in Figs. land 2, for permitting the passengers to board and alight from the car. A folding step 5 is also lowered with the opening of the doors 3, in a well-known manner. The doors 3-3 are usually operated by the conductor, and the operating mechanism consists of short lovers 6, which are carried by the pintles 4:, to which are pivotally attached the outer ends of rods 7 and 7, while the inner ends of said rods are pivoted to similar levers or cranks 8--8, which are carried by an upright shaft 9, the latter having its upper end fitted with a crank 10, which is manipulated by the conductor. The full and dotted lines in Fig. 1 show the manner of opening and closing the doors 3-43 and the lowering of the step 5.

My invention consists of the following parts: 11 is a relatively heavy iron or steel. bar, which while raised is disposed vertically against the rear right hand corner of the vestibule 2, the said bar being pivotally supported by a horizontal shaft 12, which is rotatable in bearings 13 of brackets 13, the latter being suitably secured. to the floor of the vestibule 2. The inner end of the shaft 12 is provided with a bevel pinion 14:, which meshes withthe teeth of a circular bevel rack or segmental bevel gear 15, the latter being rigidly mounted on the pintle 1, preferably above the rearmost lever 6. The full and dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 3 show the movement of the guard operating gears, when the doors are opened and closed by the conductor operating the crank 10. The guard 11 is preferably in two parts, which are hinged together at 11 and a spring 11 disposed at the rear side of the guard across the hinge tends to normally hold said parts in alinement, the object of this hinge being to permit the free end of the guard to yield rearwardly against the tension of spring 11 (see dotted lines in Fig. 1) in case the car starts ahead before the doors are closed and the guard is raised, and while passengers may still be in the path of the extended guard. The guard 11 is intended to be rigid and unyielding in the forward direction whenever a motor vehicle or other object exerts pressure against it from the rear. The guard preferably extends several feet beyond the side of the car, so as to suitably protect and safeguard any passengers who might be boarding or alighting from the car.

The guard 11 is preferably provided with a red electric light 16, which is disposed near its free end, for warning the drivers of automobiles and other vehicles in the ni 'ht time that the car is standing still and receiving or discharging passengers. The signal light may be connected with the lighting system (not shown) of the street car in the usual manner, by means of wires 16 and 16'. The

downward movement of the guard 11 is arrested by a stop 17, which supports the weight of the guard when extended horizontally and prevents the guard from descending too far and causing injury to the gears and other parts. The stop 17 may be scoured to the underside of the vestibule by bolts or other suitable means which pass through perforations 17.

'Obviously my safety device may be applied to various passenger carrying vehicles, such as buses, jitneys and the like, and that some modifications and changes may be made in the parts within the scope defined by the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a safety device for street cars, the combination with the door opening and closing mechanism, of a guard mounted on the rear-end of the car, a shaft pivotally sup- 7 porting said guard, a pinion on said shaft,

and a segment gear driving said shaft, said gear rigidly mounted on a rotating memberof the door opening and closing mechamsm.

2. In a safety device for street cars, the combmatlon with the door openmg and closing mechanism including a rotatable pintle for one of the doors, of a guard mounted on the rear end of the car adjacent said pintle and movable in a vertical plane at right angles to the car and the track, a shaft for pivotally supporting said guard, a pinion carried by said shaft, and a gear for driving said pinion, said gear rigidly mounted on said pintle and rotatable therewith.

In a safety device for street cars, the combination with the rotating pintle for opening and closing the car doors controlled by the conductor of the car, of a guard supported by the car and movable in a vertical plane at right angles to the car and track, a circular rack carried by said pintle, a shaft pivotally supporting said guard, and driven by said rack, said guard comprising two parts hinged together, the free end thereof adapted to swing rearwardly for protecting passengers, and a stop for arresting the downward movement of said guard and for supporting the weight of the guard when in the extended position.

4:. The combination with a street car and its door opening and closing mechanism, of a guard pivoted to the rear-end of the car, a train of gears connecting said guard to the said mechanism, whereby when the doors are opened said guard is moved into a horizontal position across the path of vehicles which attempt to pass the street car while passengers are boarding and leaving the car, the said guard adapted to be swung upwardly against the end of the car by the 'closing of the doors.

in testimony whereof I affix my s1 gnature.

FRANK D. MACDONALD. 

